Method:

Brush the inside of the soufflé dish or dishes with melted butter, and sprinkle with caster sugar. Set on a baking tray.

Break up the chocolate and put into a heavy-based pan with the coffee.

Set over a low heat and stir with a wooden spoon, until melted.

Take the pan off the heat and beat the three egg yolks into the hot mixture so they cook and thicken it.

Stir in the brandy. The soufflé can be covered and kept at a cool room temperature for up to an hour at this point.

Half an hour before serving, heat the oven to 220°C/425F/Gas 7.

Put the five egg whites into the food mixer and whip until stiff.

Add the caster sugar and beat 20 seconds longer or until the mixture looks glossy.

Gently heat the chocolate mixture until just hot to the touch then remove the pan from the heat.

Stir in about a quarter of the whites just to loosen the mixture then add this mixture to the whites and carefully fold them together.

Spoon into the prepared dish (or dishes) and bake at once in the heated oven allowing 12–15 minutes for the large soufflé or 7–9 minutes for the smaller ones – the mixture should still be wobbly in the centre. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve immediately.

Linda Collister is an experienced cook and baker, having trained at L’Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne in Paris and Le Cordon Bleu in London. She is the author of a number of baking books, including The Great British Book of Baking and The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake, and of two hugely popular books on chocolate -Chocolate Baking and Heavenly Chocolate. Her books have sold over 500,000 copies around the world.